manifesto

AN OBJECT IS MORE THAN JUST A THING

Objects are composed of material, time and story. They store and transmit culture, history and place. To understand the value of an object is to understand these elements.

Material tells us about our relationship to environments - reuse reduces negative impact on environments from disposal and resource gathering. Repair solidifies this valuing of environments and creates a positive impact.

Time tells us about our relationship to ourselves and others. It connects us to the past, to gratitude and the learning of lessons; and to the future, to possibility, purpose and hope. Reuse reduces the time spent working to afford more, and the psychological impacts many suffer in knowing they are producing work without meaning. Repair expresses gratitude for our and others’ time.

Story tells us about our culture and spirituality - reuse helps us learn and understand the values and experiences of those who came before us, inspiring us to consider how we wish to relate to these values. We can preserve and change culture by preserving and changing objects. Damage and repair can add to an object’s history, story and beauty.

Under capitalism, time is little more than a marker of efficiency, with a dollar equivalence, material is a resource to be exploited and converted into profit, and story is a spiel slapped on at the end for marketing to drive sales.

The demotion of these values to capitalistic metrics has contributed to the growing problem of waste worldwide. Cultural practices that restore the real value of objects can have positive impacts on our relationship to objects and the natural environments we extort for their production and disposal.

I aim to understand deeply why something must be made, and infuse objects with emotional durability through this deep inquiry and connection to values.

I AM HUMAN, NOT A COMMODITY

Creativity and expression are core parts of being human.

Capitalism is a system that doesn’t value all human life equally - it pushes us to value people by their earning power, and reinforces existing prejudices and privilege. As Sunil Tohan writes: “Neurodivergent and disabled individuals who cannot do typical work will never be treated as full citizens under this hegemonic capitalist framework.”

Mixing the dehumanising system of capitalism with my core humanness dilutes the vitality of the creative process and the outcome, and risks separating me from what makes me feel alive.

I am unshackling a sliver of my creativity from the confines of capitalism.

I AM ME

I have a unique way of looking at and understanding things. Like all humans, my challenges are intimately entwined with my strengths:

I see a lot of possibilities and have difficulty making decisions.
I am diligent and slow.
I am curious and distracted.
I have strong values and I am unrelenting.
I have an eye for detail and am anxious about mistakes.
I see the bigger picture and feel lost in the vastness of problems.
I inquire deeply and am unmotivated by ideas lacking in substance.

I seek to connect with places, communities and situations in which my strengths are useful, valuable, known and appreciated

I AM A SPECK OF DUST IN THE VAST EXPANSE OF THE UNIVERSE

I am one of 8 billion people in a moment of the 200,000 years that humans have been on a planet 4.5 billion years old in a galaxy that’s been around for 13.6 billion years. In this context, I am not important.

I have a tendency to be concerned about environmental and social impacts, functionality, and be obsessed by details. When this awareness of complexity stops me from doing things, I will consider the option of leaning into nihilism a little and

remember to occasionally say "fuck it".